The English Government and Confederate Cruisers

The Illustrated London News,
vol. 44,
no. 1244,
p. 143.

February 13, 1864

THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT AND CONFEDERATE
CRUISERS.

On Tuesday was issued a batch of
correspondence with the United States' Government in continuation of
the despatches presented to Parliament last March. The new documents
consist of affidavits and memorials relating to the depredations of
the Alabama and the Florida; despatches from Mr. Adams to Earl
Russell, quoting each of these as claims for indemnity, and adding them
"to others of the same kind which it has been my painful duty to
present to your Lordship heretofore;" and of replies from Earl Russell
disclaiming all responsibility in regard to the proceedings of the
Alabama or of any other Confederate cruiser.

In the course of a despatch dated March 27 last year Earl Russell,
describing to Lord Lyons an interview with Mr. Adams, after stating
that the American Ambassador had observed that the President might
probably find no better resource than the issue of letters of marque,
proceeds:--

"I said I would at once suggest a better measure. Mr. Seward had
said to Lord Lyons that the crews of privateers had this
advantage--that they reaped the whole benefit of the prizes they took,
whereas the crews of men-of-war were entitled to only half the value
of the prizes they took. Let the President, I said, offer a higher
reward for the capture of the Alabama and Oreto to the crews of
men-of-war than even the entire value of those vessels. Let him offer
double their value as a gratuity, and thus confine his action to
officers and men of the United States navy, over whom he could keep a
control and who were amenable to the laws which govern an honourable
profession. But what could Mr. Adams ask of the British Government?
What was his proposal? Mr. Adams said there was one thing which might
be easily done. It was supposed the British Government were
indifferent to these notorious violations of their own laws. Let them
declare their condemnation of all such infractions of law. With
respect to the law itself, Mr. Adams said either it was sufficient for
the purposes of neutrality, and then, let the British Government
enforce it; or it was insufficient, and then let the British
Government apply to Parliament to amend it. I said that the Cabinet
were of opinion that the law was sufficient, but that legal evidence
could not always be procured. That the British Government had done
everything in its power to execute the law; but I admitted that the
cases of the Alabama and Oreto were a scandal, and, in some degree, a
reproach, to our laws. Still, I said, it was my belief that if all the
assistance given to the Federals by British subjects and British
munitions of war were weighed against similar aid given to the
Confederates, the balance would be greatly in favour of the
Federals. Mr. Adams totally denied this proposition. But, above all,
he said, there is a manifest conspiracy in this country--of which the
Confederate loan is an additional proof--to produce a state of
exasperation in America, and thus bring on a war with Great Britain
with a view to aid the Confederate cause and secure a monopoly of the
trade of the Southern States, whose independence these conspirators
hope to establish by these illegal and unjust measures. He had worked
to the best of his power for peace, but it had become a most difficult
task. Mr. Adams fully deserves the character of having always laboured
for peace between our two nations; nor, I trust, will his efforts and
those of the two Governments fail of success."

In a letter to Mr. Adams, dated the 26th of October last, Earl
Russell says:--

"I have had the honour to receive your letter of the 23rd inst. In
that letter you inform me that you are instructed to say that the
Government of the United States must continue to insist that Great
Britain has made itself responsible for the damages which the citizens
of the United States sustain by the depredations of the vessel called
the Alabama. But towards the conclusion of your letter you state that
the Government of the United States are not disposed to act
dogmatically or in a spirit of litigation; that they desire to
maintain amity as well as peace; that they fully comprehend how
unavoidably reciprocal grievances must spring up from the divergence
of the policy of the two countries in regard to the present
insurrection. You add further on, that the United States frankly
confess themselves unwilling to regard the present hour as the most
favourable to a calm and candid examination by either party of the
facts or the principles involved in cases like the one now in
question. With this declaration her Majesty's Government may well be
content to wait the time when a calm and candid examination of the
facts and principles involved in the case of the Alabama may, in the
opinion of the Government of the United States, usefully be
undertaken. In the mean time, I must request you to believe that the
principle contended for by Her Majesty's Government is not that of
commissioning, equipping, and manning vessels in our ports to cruise
against either of the belligerent parties, a principle which was so
justly and unequivocally condemned by the President of the United
States in 1793, as recorded by Mr. Jefferson in his letter to
Mr. Hammond on the 18th of May of that year. But the British
Government must decline to be responsible for the acts of parties who
fit out a seeming merchant-ship, send her to a port or to waters far
from the jurisdiction of British Courts, and there commission, equip,
and man her as a vessel of war. Her Majesty's Government fear that if
an admitted principle were thus made elastic to suit a particular
case, th[e] trade of shipbuilding, in which our people excel, and which
is to great numbers of them a source of honest livelihood, would be
seriously embarassed and impeded. I may add that it appears strange
that, notwithstanding the large and powerful naval force possessed by
the Government of the United States, no efficient measures have been
taken by that Government to capture the Alabama. On our part, I must
declare that to perform the duties of neutrality fairly and
impartially, and at the same time to maintain the spirit of British
law and protect the lawful industry of the Queen's subjects, is the
object of her Majesty's Government; and they trust that the Government
of the United States will recognise their earnest desire to preserve,
in the difficult circumstances of the present time, the relations of
amity between the two nations."

On the 29th of the same month Lord Russell informed Mr. Adams that
the proceedings of the Alabama at the Cape had been under the
consideration of the Government, and the following conclusions had
been adopted by them:--

"1. That her Majesty's Government are satisfied by the concurrent
testimony of the colonial and naval authorities at the Cape that at
the time of capture the Sea Bride was considerably more than three
miles distant from the nearest land. 2. That as regards the character
of the Alabama, that vessel is entitled to be treated as a ship of war
belonging to a belligerent Power, and that neither the Governor nor
any other British authority at the Cape was entitled to exercise any
jurisdiction over her. 3. That as regards the Tuscaloosa, although her
Majesty's Government would have approved the British authorities at
the Cape if they had adopted towards that vessel a course different
from that which was adopted, yet the question as to the manner in
which a vessel under such circumstances should, according to the
tenour of her Majesty's orders, be dealt with, was one not altogether
free from uncertainty. Nevertheless, instructions will be sent to the
British authorities at the Cape for their guidance in the event of a
similar case occurring hereafter, and her Majesty's Government hope
that under those instructions nothing will for the future happen to
admit of a question being raised as to her Majesty's orders having
been strictly carried out."